Chefs Recipe – Caramel Poached Pears with Cider and Mascarpone Cream by Shay Cooper, The Goring Hotel

The prestigious Goring Hotel in Belgravia has hosted many Royals over the years including most recently The Duchess of Cambridge on the night before her marriage to Prince William. Now this 5-star star hotel, which has been run by four generations of the Goring family since 1910, is home to the incredibly talented chef Shay Cooper. His creative but elegant style of cooking perfectly compliments this most grand of dining rooms. Here he shares for us his recipe for Caramel Poached Pears with Cider and Mascarpone Cream.

Ingredients

• 4 Williams pears (firm but not under ripe)
• 1 lemon
• 300g double cream
• 300g creme fraiche
• 300g mascarpone
• 150g sugar
• 1 litre good quality cider

Method – Poached Pears

1. Peel the pears and scrape the surface with a small knife to ensure a smooth finish
2. Place the 750g of sugar into a heavy based saucepan with a little splash of water and put onto high heat, stirring until you have made a rich dark amber caramel
3. remove the pan from the heat and place into a shallow tray of ice water to prevent the caramel from continuing to cook
4. Add 1 litre of water to the caramel and then place back on to the heat to create a caramel syrup
5. Bring the syrup to the boil and add the pears along with the juice from the lemon. Cook over a gentle heat until the pears are tender, remove from heat and allow to cool in the syrup

Method – Cider Cream

1. Pour the cider into a heavy bottom pan and reduce over a high heat until it becomes a heavy syrup then put to one side
2. Put the double cream into a mixing bowl with the 150g sugar and whip until stiff ribbons are formed
3. Fold the crème fraiche and mascarpone into the whipped cream and add the reduced cider syrup according to taste

To Serve

1. Remove the poached pears from the caramel syrup and drain on some kitchen towel
2. Place the pears onto individual plates and serve alongside a large dollop of the cider cream

 Executive Chef – Shay Cooper

“One of England’s young generation of up-and-coming, ultra-talented chefs with Michelin pedigree, Shay Cooper started cooking as a commis chef in 1997, before he was even out of school. Since then he’s worked at Juniper in Altrincham, Stockcross’s The Vineyard, and was named head chef at the Endsleigh Hotel, gaining three AA rosettes for his efforts there.

More recently, he impressed at The Bingham in Richmond, chalking up another three AA rosettes and his first Michelin star, before moving on to take the role of Executive Chef at London’s Goring Hotel. The Dining Room at The Goring Hotel was subsequently awarded a Michelin star in the 2016 award list – one of only four London restaurants to gain their first star.

Instead of making the whiz-bang, show-off food that one might expect from a young chef bursting with ideas, Cooper has earned praise for his light touch, which allows the ingredients themselves to do the heavy lifting.” Great British Chefs

The Restaurant – The Goring Dining Room | Beeston Place, Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0JW | 0207 396 9000 | www.thegoring.com

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